The present invention relates to a device for treating the interior of a body cavity with laser energy. The invention is particularly useful for the treatment of chronic menorrhagia, and is therefore described below with respect to such an application, but it will be appreciated that the invention conceivably could be used in other applications as well.
Chronic menorrhagia, defined as excessive and/or prolonged menstrual bleeding, is commonly treated by birth control pills, other hormonal therapies, or by a minor operation called "D and C" (dilation and curettage) involving a scraping of the lining of the uterus. When such treatments are not effective, a hysterectomy is generally performed involving removing the uterus and the lining along with it. Approximately 600,000 hysterectomies are performed in the USA each year.
Recently, a technique has been developed using laser energy to burn the uterine lining such as to cause scarring that prevents the lining from growing back. In this technique, a laser beam is conducted into the uterus by means of an optical fiber. The optical fiber is inserted via a channel of a hysteroscope, enabling the physician to view the interior of the uterus as he manipulates the tip of the optical fiber. He sweeps the tip of the optical fiber across the uterine lining to ablate the lining to a depth of about 3-5 mm. This procedure is generally quite painful because of the need to insert the hysteroscope and to dilate the uterus, usually done with a liquid, to enable the physician to view all the surfaces of the uterine lining as he manipulates the tip of the optical fiber over the uterine lining.